The Hound of Ulster by Rosemary Sutcliff

Author:Rosemary Sutcliff [Rosemary Sutcliff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2002-11-07T05:00:00+00:00

10. The Hosting of Maeve

WHEN FERGUS MAC ROY reached Emain Macha after the feast of Baruch, and found one of his sons dead and the other worse than dead to him, and the sons of Usna betrayed to their deaths from out of the shelter of his safe conduct, he cursed Conor the King with all the power of rage and grief within him, with all the strength of an old loyalty turned to hate, swearing to be avenged on him with fire and sword. Then he gathered his weapons and bade his charioteer to harness up, and drove like the Lord of the Wild Hunt out of Ulster, to take a new service with Maeve of Connacht.

So by King Conor’s own act, the sorrow that he had tried to avert was begun indeed; for Fergus Mac Roy who had been among the greatest of the Red Branch Heroes was gone with vengeance in his heart, to join himself to Ulster’s enemies. And more than one, there were, that followed him, among them Dubthach the Beetle of Ulster, and Cormac Coilinglass, the King’s own son. Cuchulain did not go with them for he could not bring himself to take service with Ulster’s enemies, but he went away to his own place at Dūn Dealgan, and was no more seen nor heard of at Emain Macha for a long time.

Now in Connacht it was as I told before, that the Chieftain-ship of the land passed from mother to daughter and the King counted for little. Maeve was as all the Royal women of Connacht had been, tall and fierce and very fair and heedful of nothing but her own wild will. And when Fergus came to her at her palace in Roscommon, she welcomed him and sought his aid in a certain matter.

For a short while before Fergus’s coming, she and Ailell had had a great quarrel as to which of them had the greatest possessions, and in all things they had proved equal, save for the great white herd bull, the Finnbenach, who had been Maeve’s, but had broken out to join the King’s herd. Ailell had taunted her because the Finnbenach would not stay in the hands of a woman. This was not to be borne, and Maeve in a fury had sent for Mac Roth her steward and demanded that he should find her somewhere, anywhere in the length and breadth of Ireland, another bull as fine as the Finnbenach.

‘As to finding him, that is easily done,’ the steward had said, ‘for the Brown Bull of Quelgney that belongs to Dara, Son of old Fachtna the Giant, is the mightiest bull in all Ireland. So broad is his back that fifty children can play upon it at the same time, and once when his keeper made him angry he trampled the man thirty feet into the ground!’

‘Get him for me,’ said Maeve.

But the steward shook his head. ‘That is not so easily done, for Quelgney is deep behind

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